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Gold Coast Parking Meter puzzle

Edward Hordern IPP27 Puzzle Exchange – Gold Coast, Australia. August 2007. 200 made.Presented by Brian Young. Made by Mr Puzzle Australia. Designed by Brian Young.
Original Price: AU$95.00
One of these puzzles sold in March 2019 on Cubicdissection Auction site for USD 250.00 and another in September 2019 for USD 372.00. The latest auction at Puzzle Paradise just sold one for USD 700.00 (at today’s exchange rate that’s over AU$1000).

The object is to get the 10c inside the parking meter. Make sure you reassemble the parking meter with the 10c correctly inside. Getting money out of a parking meter is usually illegal so please don’t try to do that with this puzzle!

This puzzle is a representation in wood of one of the Duncan parking metres used on the Gold Coast from the 1960’s onwards.

The puzzle does not easily slot into one of the regular Hordern or Slocum categories so we have called it a Sequential-Discovery puzzle. Yes, it is a Take-Apart puzzle. It is also a Put-Together puzzle. There are a number of different challenges you will have to complete to do the puzzle. No external tools are necessary for disassembly or reassembly of the puzzle, although you will have to find tools within, and determine how to use them, to complete the puzzle.

You can reassemble the puzzle in reverse using all the tools the same as when you took it apart. But there is a way of using one of the tools in a slightly different way to create an easier assembly. The puzzle will still be able to be disassembled the original way. See if you can find it…

The puzzle made from Yellow Leichhardt. Stand made from Mackay Cedar. Yellow Leichhardt was used because of the distinctive bright yellow colour to try to match the golden colour that parking meters on the Gold Coast are painted.

Meter Maids were first seen in Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast in 1965 to try to help beat the bad image created by the installation of parking meters. Gorgeous girls in gold bikinis fed coins into expired parking meters to prevent tourists from being fined, causing quite a controversy at the time. They are still seen in Surfers today although they are generally hired by local businesses these days.

Brian certainly caused a stir at IPP27 when he introduced Sophie, a Gold Coast Meter Maid, as his exchange assistant!

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